Rick Ross album Set In Stone misses the Top 20 as 50 Cent piles on

Rick Ross released Set In Stone, his first solo album since Richer Than I Ever Been in 2021, and it opened outside the Billboard 200's Top 20. The 19 track record moved roughly 17,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, nearly 15,000 of them from streaming, and debuted at No. 39.

50 Cent, who has feuded with Ross publicly for close to two decades, treated the number as an occasion. He posted about the sales twice inside a week, wrote that 20 features had produced under 10,000 sales, and followed with video he said showed empty seats before a Ross show in Detroit, adding a line about focusing on chicken wings, a shot at Ross' Wingstop franchises.

Ross did not dispute the figure so much as the framing. He told listeners not to get caught up in what he called propaganda and fake bot numbers, and asked people to go to the product and test the music instead. He then turned the argument toward 50 Cent's development plans in Shreveport, Louisiana, accusing him of taking people's money. That accusation is unproven, and it followed 50 Cent's own threat to scale back his involvement in the city's Red River District after disagreements with local leaders.

The feud has been running since the late 2000s, and the album cycle simply handed it a fresh number to argue over. Ross had already answered an earlier round by mocking 50 Cent's business deals, including his latest sneaker deal. Louisiana approved a $124 million package for three downtown entertainment projects in Shreveport, which gave the argument a second front away from the charts.

Set In Stone sits with the week's other chart movement, and both men run through our hip-hop coverage: Nipsey Hussle turned down an MMG offer from Ross years ago, and a judge is weighing defenses in 50 Cent's life rights case. Ross was booked to play Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix on the Friday after the figures landed.